It’s been reported today that Leeds have made a bid for Nottingham Forest striker Dexter Blackstock, although their new manager Alex McLeish is keen to keep hold of the player.
Sky Sports are reporting that Blackstock is Neil Warnock’s next transfer target in his search for an experienced striker, now that he’s been rebuffed in his attempt to sign West Brom’s Chris Wood. We’ve apparently tabled a bid somewhere between £700,000 and £800,000.
Just before Christmas I heard that Blackstock was likely to be coming to Elland Road, and that was before his impressive performance against us in the Boxing Day game, when he scored one of the goals in our 4-2 defeat. But that has now been thrown into some doubt by the surprise sacking of Sean O’Driscoll, with Alex McLeish wanting time to evaluate the players he’s inherited before he decides what changes he needs to make to his squad.
McLeish told the Nottingham Evening Post "I am just walking in through the door and am starting to realise we have to make some big decisions very, very quickly. There is all sorts of speculation about Dexter, but we are not planning to let him go. He is out of contract in the summer and you never know. I realise he probably wants a new contract, an extended deal, but I would hope that Dexter would want to stay the course with us.”
It makes a pleasant change for Leeds to be linked with a top player from another club, rather than looking to flog one of our own key players who can’t agree a new contract. Hopefully this is a sign that GFH are providing the resources we need to offer players better contracts than they can get at other clubs in this division, so we can attract the players we need.
But it’s likely that Blackstock’s situation won’t be resolved for a couple of weeks, as the new Forest manager makes one more attempt to get him to sign a new deal, and possibly asks his board to make the player an improved offer. Any transfer probably won’t happen until the final few days of the transfer window, but watch this space.